Putting their second-half Munster final stumble behind them to secure a first quarter-final victory in four years would represent “great, great progress”, says former Clare hurler Lohan.

“It is key [that they win]. Getting to an All-Ireland semi-final and final is where you want to be. If they could take an additional step and get into the semis, it would be seen as great, great progress. To see the year as a good year, they’ll want to be in the semi-finals,” says the two-time All-Ireland medal winner.

It is a really key game for both teams. Wexford have made huge progress under Davy but probably will have felt they could have got a Leinster final out of the round-robin. They started very well against Kilkenny, but Kilkenny came back into it.

“I wouldn’t see [the Davy derby] as a huge factor. The media will hype it up. Davy is a very colourful character and is great for the promotion of the game, but when it comes down to it, it’ll be decided by the players and how well they implement their own management’s plans.”

Lohan is confident Clare have moved on from their Munster final setback and says the players’ motivation has to be to prove to themselves their first-half performance, rather than the second-half no-show, is a truer reflection of where Clare is at. The Banner, bar Ian Galvin’s injury-time goal, managed just eight points in the second period, allowing Cork to comfortably overturn an eight-point deficit.

“Most of them will have put a huge amount into it and will have said, what didn’t go right for us the last day, let’s rectify that. A lot of them are coming into great form and they’ll be taking that form from the first half and be saying to themselves, that’s a more accurate indication of where they are. We hope their attitude will be, we want to make sure the second half isn’t where we are [at].

“A Munster final win would have been brilliant, but that’s all history now and the next game will determine their season. What Wexford will bring will be a lot different to what Cork brought. The game will be more tactical, probably a bit more defensive. It will be Clare plotting a way around the system that Wexford set up with, whereas Cork are a bit more straightforward in how they play the game, but play it brilliantly, nonetheless.”

Shaun Murphy will again operate as the extra man in the Wexford defence and is likely to position himself in the vicinity of John Conlon — the Clonlara forward had four points from play to his name within 20 minutes of the Munster final throw-in. Even if the latter is tied up, Lohan knows there are plenty more Clare forwards who can post a match-winning tally.

It just depends on how negative it gets and are [Wexford] able to pick off their scores at the other end. Being overly defensive will only get you so far. If you focus on one forward, several more could stand up and do damage. For example, if Wexford leave Tony Kelly to his own devices, they will pay the penalty.

“Shaun [Murphy] seems to play in front of the full-back line constantly, so it is just a case of can Clare pick their way around that or find a way through that. That will be key to the overall outcome.”

Tom Dempsey, in these pages on Tuesday, questioned why a Leinster venue wasn’t considered given tomorrow will be Wexford’s fourth All-Ireland quarter-final on Munster soil in five years. Lohan has no such issues with the choice of venue, but does agree with Dempsey who criticised the decision to fix the game for the middle of the day.

“Starting at 3pm on a Saturday will impact the attendance. People involved with juvenile teams will have matches on Saturday morning and it can be tricky then to get down to Cork for a 3pm throw-in — 3pm on Sunday is fine. 3pm on Saturday, though, I’m not sure that works. An evening slot on a Saturday seems to work better.”